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Entrepreneurship Foreplay

by Larry Chiang on November 26, 2012

Entrepreneurship Foreplay By Larry Chiang

Before I was not a fan of foreplay, but now I am.

Leaving mecca (aka Silicon Valley) for Thanksgiving was mega insightful. The main insight centered around the things that led to my transition from Naperville to Palo Alto.

-1- It helps to have a Founders Fund partner escort you from Naperville to Palo Alto.

Luke Nosek facilitated my moving from Illinois with a meeting at 165 University Avenue. He gave me a lead generation deal and I moved here. Zero risk. Little pressure to do the impossible because I was pattern replicating what I did in Naperville (err Oak Brook, Illinois).

-2- You can take the boy out of Naperville, but you can’t take the Naperville out of the boy.

Working the entire process of the Naperville Park District was critical. It was entrepreneur foreplay. I took classes and camp on baseball (that cost very little) and eventually taught at Baseball camp.

Later, when I played baseball in college for Augie Garrido, I was Baseball League director for Urbana’s Park District. All made possible by being a disciple to Bill Seiple via the Naperville Park District.

-3- Pay me to train me.

This is a pattern you as an undergrad engineer should pattern replicate.

My first job @ this Fortune 100 set a record high starting salary out of engineering school. It STILL stands (and I want you to beat it. I’d be ecstatic if you did 🙂 HQ is in Naperville Illinois. It is very NPD (Naperville Park District) if you did surpass me with my help. That’s the model I used in Silicon Valley to be alpha male.

Surpassing me centers around

-4- Getting sales skills as an engineer.

Selling skills are critical. As an engineer, I wanted to sell better than a car salesman.

Set as a goal: More engineering technical competence. More sales-ie than a car salesman.

-5- Gamble with House Money

If you’re an engineer, you shouldn’t have to take risks the way an Econ major or MBA does. So, gamble with house money.

Remember, our major was uber hard. Finance is like calculus for retards with brain trauma. If they had an AP test for an MBA, we as engineers could place out of all of it 🙂

By gambling with house money, specifically I mean making an opportunity of starting a business come find you. Yes, you’ll be starting a sequel business. Yes, you’ll need to google for my blog post on how to do that as an undergrad engineer (pre) entrepreneur.

ENGR145’s Anchor Concept at Stanford University: Lemonade and Gua Gua Guacamole

It moves you to the right on the entrepreneur bell curve

At MIT, I do a Entrepreneurship Foreplay-themed session: “Engineering Entrepreneurship Education for People That May Never Be Founders”. The idea is that we want to prepare and get it super wet before we figure out if we are doing anything with it

CEO of Duck9 Founding Stanford University EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) Emeritus

Duck9 = “Deep Underground Credit Knowledge” 9 125 University Avenue/ 100 Palo Alto CA 94301 https://www.duck9.com/ass 650-566-9600 650-566-9696 (direct) 650-283-8008 (cell)

**************** Editor of the BusinessWeek Channel “What They Don’t Teach at Business School” https://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog CNN Video Channel: https://ireport.cnn.com/people/larrychiang

Read my last 10 tweets at https://www.Twitter.com/LarryChiang

Author, NY Times Bestseller https://whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com/blog/?s=Ny+times+bestseller

“What They Will NEVER Teach You at Stanford Business School” comes out 11-11-14

https://www.fastcompany.com/embed/c0d4562ea2049

52 Cards. Two Jokers. What They DO Teach You at Stanford Engineering

Emergency swings and cutting deals as an 9 year old

########## Duck9 is part of UCMS Inc. https://www.ucms.com 630-705-5555

More on #ENGR145’s SHIFTING right on the entrepreneur bell curve

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